Are Chile’s ‘Fiestas Patrias’ really all that?

By Tengri Genc, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile

New Year’s Eve, Easter, Halloween, Christmas. We like our holidays in the UK – like, not love. Chile loves its holidays, though one particular festivity stands out as the biggest day of the Chilean year. Having now experienced the anticipation, celebration, and aftermath of the ‘Fiestas Patrias’, I can now determine whether Chile’s national holiday is really ‘all that’.

The build-up

Chileans talk about the Fiestas Patrias like we talk about Christmas – or rather, how we would talk about Christmas if on Christmas day you received a millions pounds in cash, were visited by a herd of unicorns, and could raise people from the dead. The festival itself celebrates Chile’s gaining of independence from Spain but for most Chileans it marks a week of revelry where people flock together in ‘fondas’ (parks and other outdoor spaces) to drink, dance the ‘cueca’ (a dance in which partners imitate a hen and cockerel), and eat traditional Chilean foods. In the months leading up to September 18th, the official beginning of the holiday, Chileans love to discuss what they plan to drink and eat on the day. A teacher of mine told me she was most looking forward to consuming a ‘terremoto’ (a drink made of sweet white wine and ice cream). ‘Terremoto’ in Spanish means ‘earthquake’. My teacher insisted the drink only brings her good memories despite the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile in 2010 having destroyed her family home.

The day

I chose to spend the first day of the celebrations in Parque O’Higgins, a public park known for holding the largest fonda in Chile. There were essentially two parts to the event. In the day, the fonda is essentially a village fete where families play games and gorge themselves on the traditional cuisine. By night, the park transforms into a music festival with multiple stages hosting the biggest names in Chilean music. I was lucky enough to see Amar Azul perform, a band considered by many Chileans to be the most quintessentially Chilean music act. Though, as it turns out, Amar Azul come from Argentina and the two nations, despite a bitter rivalry, are actually culturally very similar.

As is custom on September 18th, I consumed an exorbitant amount of food and drink. Below are my rankings of traditional Chilean cuisine.

• Terremoto (sweet white wine and ice cream): Not good. Felt like my teeth were going to fall out. 3/10
• Choripán (miniature hot dog with chimicurri): Juicy and delicious. Would eat again. 8/10
• Empanada (folded dough with a filling): Basically a Greggs steak bake. Customisable with whatever filling you prefer. 6/10
• Michelada (lager with citrus juice, Worcestershire sauce, and spices): Genuinely the greatest drink I have ever consumed. Perfect mix of sweet and savoury. My mother called me the day after the festival and when she said ‘I love you’ I hesitated to say it back because really all I love now is michelada. Originally Mexican. 10/10

The aftermath

On a serious note, my key takeaway from the Fiestas Patrias was that, despite it being a great opportunity to socialise, dance, and consume enough food to put yourself into a coma, much of the hype surrounding the holiday is due to the wider Chilean culture. Chile is a country that suffers from enormous wealth inequality. There is a great pressure amongst people, especially students, to be successful. On top of this, the ex-dictatorship carries a sense of homogeneity which a lot of Chileans I’ve spoken to say makes them feel forced to conform. The Fiestas Patrias, for many, are just as much about celebrating Chilean independence as they are about exercising individual freedom. A few days every year where you can drink during the daytime, play music in the streets, and stop worrying about academic pressure or financial woes. Still, the Fiestas Patrias are an excellent cultural insight to experience whilst you are in Chile because the overbearing parts of Chilean society oft swept under the rug are as authentic as the food and the drink and the dance.